Cooper: On a purely conceptual level—talking cognitive fundamentals here—I don't get what you're saying. Everything came out this year.

Me: Well, you came out this year, but those songs are old. The Cat Stevens song is older than me, and the Low song is more than a decade old.

Cooper: I don't know Dad, this is all seeming like some weird technicality to devalue my opinions on music.

Me: No, it's just you're not getting the whole point of talking about music at the end of the year.

Cooper: No Dad—I think you're missing the point. Those were my favorite songs of the year. Period, full stop.

Me: Okay, okay. You win. Props for picking a Low b-side, by the way.

Cooper: Thanks. I know pretty much all that band does is lullabys, but this is the one that really speaks to me. I look forward to peanut butter some day. And bandstanding.

Me: You don't... never mind.

Cooper: Frankly I'm surprised these aren't your favorites too, since you sing them to me as often as you do.

Me: I love those songs! They're just not new to me.

Cooper: Right, they're "not from this year" or whatever. So what were your favorites?

Me: Yeah, well like I was saying—

Cooper: —nothing knocked you out. Right. But it couldn't have all been average, could it?

Me: Just to give you an idea of my feelings on the matter: I have this compulsion to rate every single song in my iTunes library. Out of nearly 13,500 songs, 13,250 of them are rated.

Cooper: Intense.

Me: Yeah, a little. But it really helps with the smart playlists.

Cooper: You're digressing into territory I don't understand.

Me: Sorry. Anyway, for some perspective on my feelings toward music released this year, I have 504 songs in my iTunes that are from 2010. Of those, I only gave 21 songs a five-star rating.

Cooper: What is that, like 4%?

Me: Something like that. I'd need a calculator for that.

Cooper: It's 4%.

Me: Okay. And those 21 songs were written by 11 different artists or bands. I mean, it's really a small number. By contrast, I have 460 songs from 2009, and 38 are rated five stars, by 16 different artists.

Cooper: You're looking at around 9% there. Definitely a better ratio.

Me: Right?

Cooper: But Dad, you've got to stop sucking the pleasure out of this with all your statistical analysis.

Me: No, the analysis is fun!

Cooper: So weird. So what were the best songs?

Me: Should I rank them?

Cooper: Jesus Dad. I've got a nap scheduled later this afternoon. Can you just pick a few of your favorites and list them? They're all five stars, so ranking seems a little much.